Judge orders state prison for meth maker

LOCKPORT – James O. White, one of several local men arrested in 2013 on methamphetamine charges, was sentenced Friday by Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III to two years in prison.

White, 21, of Olcott Street, Lockport, was arrested Jan. 11, 2013, in a raid on a meth lab in the home of his co-defendant, Sean A. Smith, on Hope Lane in Newfane. Smith, 39, was sentenced in November to 4½ years behind bars.

Assistant District Attorney Peter M. Wydysh said White may have shown other people how to make meth, and also was accused of selling it. Defense attorney Janelle Messer denied White sold meth, but said he was “a bad user” of the drug.

Wydysh said, “He was part of a meth circle, not a terribly sophisticated one – this is not ‘Breaking Bad’ – but a meth circle in Lockport, Newfane and Olcott.”